Team completes resurvey of Kadakampally land

A resurvey team constituted by the district administration to update its revenue records pertaining to 44.5 acres of land at Kadakampally has found conflicts in the title deeds of only three plots of the 132 surveyed.

The team is expected to submit a report to District Collector Biju Prabhakar next week.

“The sketch for 44.5 acres of land is ready and the team is preparing the land registry, which will have the name of the real title deed-holder and the land the person possesses. The new registry and a report will be submitted to the Collector next week,” said Gopan, revenue official in charge of the survey team.

The District Collector ordered resurvey of the property after landowners launched a protest when they were denied permission to remit land tax, since there were other claimants to the same property.

The team was asked to find whether there was more than one title deed-holder for the same plots in the 44.5 acres, Mr. Gopan said.

The re-survey found duplication only in the ownership of three plots. “For the rest of the properties we did not find any dispute. The resurvey was conducted in the presence of landowners,” he said.

The resurvey was conducted in the light of allegations that certain influential persons had entered into illegal transactions, including forging of rent rolls kept at the village office, and deprived the legal title-holders of the land, which is mired in a land-grab case involving Salim Raj, former gunman of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

Agitated landowners, along with the Kadakampally unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had launched an agitation demanding right to remit land tax. They called off their indefinite protest on May 5.

Council stance

The Kadakampally Land Protection Council has decided to wait till May 25 to renew their agitation. Sasidharan, member of the council, told The Hindu that immediately after the agitation was called off, the District Collector told them that land tax payment would be facilitated before May 25.

“We were told that the report of the resurvey team will be submitted to the Collector by Tuesday. If the Collector fails to adhere to his promise we will launch a fresh agitation in front of the Secretariat,” he said.